Homeland: Get up to speed on the adventures of Carrie and Brody ahead of season three of CIA thriller

More intrigue, espionage, tears and weird jazz metaphors

It's a familiar story. Girl meets boy, boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, boy turns out to be an international terrorist, girl cries loads, boy says he doesn't want to be a terrorist anymore, other terrorists aren't up for that. See, classic love story.

That's right, drama fans, Homeland is back! Well, nearly. The first full trailer for series three has been released, but we won't see any actual episodes until early October. Even so, for the next two months we'll be getting a steady drip of information about Carrie, Brody and Saul, just like the internet was our own personal mole.

So now is a good time to get up to speed and remind ourselves of all the action and intrigue that got Carrie and Brody into this fine mess in the first place.

Series one

The series starts with the rescue of Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), who was found after eight years of captivity in Afghanistan. Sources say he gave his time there a negative review on Trip Advisor.

Meanwhile, twitchy CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) suspects foul play after one of her sources tells her an American prisoner is a sleeper agent for Al-Qaeda.

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An important looking corridor

After a shave and a shower, Brody is revealed to be quite handsome and is quickly held up as a national hero. Carrie, meanwhile, is convinced he's the wrongest of wrong-uns so begins a covert surveillance operation against the orders of her superiors.

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Family affairs

Terrorist or not, Brody definitely had several years of nasty torture at the hands of his captors. So he's understandably a bit wobbly when it comes to things like talking to people and bright light.

This doesn't sit well with his family, who are a bit freaked by all his screaming in the night. Oh, and his wife's been hanging out with his old best friend A LOT, because they both thought he was dead.

As Brody begins to settle down, he's lined up for a high ranking political job, so he spends a lot of time holding little drinks and chatting to men who look like variations of Ron Bergundy.

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A stressed man, yesterday

Meanwhile, out in that shifty looking van that's been parked across the road for two weeks, Carrie continues her investigation. Even though her bearded boss and mentor Saul wants her to follow another line of enquiry about terrorist leader, Abu Nazir.

Needing solid proof, Carrie, who we now know has bi-polar disorder decides she needs to meet Brody face to face, so she attends his help group for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

They get chatting, go for a drink and then they get it on. Which is pretty unprofessional, right?

So, to recap on the recap, Carrie thinks Brody is a terrorist but still sleeps with him. Brody's wife is all shifty because of the thing with Brody's best mate. Saul has an amazing beard.

And then everything is ruined because Brody's old partner, Tom Walker, who was also kidnapped, has come back and is definitely a terrorist.

So while the CIA track Walker, Brody is invited for a meeting with the Vice President of America, who asks him to run for congress. Great gig, right? It really is, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE IN FACT A TERRORIST AND HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ALL ALONG!

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Super evil plaid shirt

Yeah, it was a pretty amazing reveal. Brody IS a terrorist and he's going to blow himself up next to the Vice President.

At this point, Carrie started to lose the plot a bit. She came off her medication and started phoning Brody and shouting at him.

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Carrie, in a huff

In her defence, you're definitely going to have mixed feelings if you find yourself falling in love with someone who you also think is a terrorist.

So Brody ends up in a bunker with the Vice President and tries to detonate his suicide vest, but it fails, and literally everyone in the world who was watching Homeland at that point falls off the edge of their sofa.

He fixes it, but then gets a phone call from his daughter and decides not to blow himself up, and no one finds out about what he was going to do. It was unbelievably tense.

Carrie, who now thinks Brody is innocent, apologises to him and promises to stay away from him and his family. Brody, meanwhile, meets with terrorist boss Abu Nazir and assures him that he can do more damage in political office than with one bomb.

The series ends with Carrie submitting herself to electro shock therapy which might wipe a vital clue that would prove Brody's guilt from her memory. Phew.

Series two

Set six months after the events of the first series, the action begins when a woman approaches the CIA claiming she has information about an imminent terrorist attack on America.

The catch is, she'll only talk to her former handler. And guess who that is? That's right, it's Carrie Matheson.

Carrie is not up for this. After her treatment, she's in a good place and is happy to be out of the CIA. It takes her old friend Saul (still with awesome beard) to convince her to help.

Knowing how fragile she is, her CIA friends pack her off to Lebanon on the trail of a terrorist cell. Cheers lads.

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It just grows like this naturally

Things are looking much nicer for Brody, who's asked by the Vice President to consider a position as running mate if the VP goes for the President's job during the next elections.

Channel 4

One of these men is in serious trouble

Brody thinks this is great idea, until he meets with journalist Roya Hammad who reveals herself to be working for Abu Nazir. She tells Brody they're at war and that he has to pick a side.

If he wants to work with Al-Qaeda, he must steal a list of targets from the head of the CIA's office. He does it.

If that wasn't enough stress, things still aren't great at home for Brody. And the added pressure of having to attend lots of really nice looking high-society parties isn't sitting well with his wife and sour-faced daughter.

Carrie finally meets up with her contact in the Middle East and gets Abu Nazir's location. Scrambling a team of special forces soldiers, a hit is lined up.

Channel 4

Hello, America?

Over in Washington, Brody is invited along to watch as the operation takes place, but when he realises the target is Nazir, he sends the terrorist a text message warning him of the attack.

So Nazir gets away, but a load of useful documents are seized. While going through them, Saul finds a secret compartment in a folder, inside of which is a memory stick with a video on it. That video? It's Brody's suicide confession. Woah.

Showtime 2012

Probably not watching cat videos

The CIA begin surveillance on Brody again, but this time an agent called Quinn is in charge and he's really scary. He asks Carrie to meet up with Brody in order to gather more intel.

Brody and Carrie's meet-up is going well until she has a bit of a wobble and confronts Brody in his hotel room, telling him that she knows he's a terrorist. This forces Quinn and Saul to take Brody in for questioning.

The CIA strike a deal with Brody so that he becomes a double, double agent, delivering information from his terrorist connections while still maintaining his place in congress. Sounds stressful.

A man who needs a holiday
Then it all goes a bit crazy, again. A terrorist plot is averted thanks to information from Brody. It transpires that Quinn has been ordered to kill Brody for the FBI if he's ordered to, and Brody's wife starts sleeping with Mike again. Come on Mike, not now.

Carrie is then kidnapped by Nazir, who calls Brody and orders him to get the serial number of the Vice President's pacemaker so they can kill him using some kind of terrifying gadget. The Vice President dies and Brody appears to be very pleased about that.

Nazir is captured and killed, Brody and his wife agree to call it a day, and he goes knocking on Carrie's door, so it's all super awkward.

The series ends in spectacular style as Carrie and Brody attend a memorial for the Vice President. Just as they slip away from the service for a heart-to-heart, a massive bomb in Brody's car explodes, killing most of the people at the service.

Carrie accuses Brody of being a terrorists again, and he denies it. Eventually she believes him, but knowing that no one else will, she insists he makes a run for it. But not before she promises to clear his name.